Starring Martin Lawrence, Mike Epps, Cedric The Entertainer. Written and directed by Malcolm D Lee. (14A) 100 min. Opens Feb 8.
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins is a raunchy family comedy with more actors than the thin script can hold. Martin Lawrence plays Roscoe Jenkins, a man who was teased by his family throughout childhood before distancing himself from them in adulthood. Now a successful talk-show host, Roscoe returns home for his parents’ wedding anniversary to prove that he is no longer the loser they all thought he was. Hmmm… think he’ll show up his relatives or learn to appreciate his family?
The set-up is generic, the outcome is obvious and the only thing that keeps the movie afloat is a talented cast. Cedric The Entertainer, Monique, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Earl Jones, Michael Epps and even Lawrence himself score plenty of laughs. The problem is that the characters are one-note and completely divorced from reality. The improv-heavy directing style of Malcolm D. Lee gives all actors scenes to steal, but the central story gets lost among a sea of actor-driven character sketches. Many individual sequences are quite hilarious, but there’s barely anything holding them together.
The movie could have worked if Lee had abandoned his attempt at a linear narrative in favour of ensemble laughs, but he regularly stalls the movie trying to outfit Roscoe with a love interest and character arc. Add an embarrassing Survivor running gag and a son who only appears in sentimental sequences and you’ve got a movie that adds up to far less than the sum of its parts. However, if you’ve always wanted to see a tiny dog having sex with a big dog, this one’s for you.